South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Clark returns as head coach
Chargers re-hire leader who guided team from 2012-15
A familiar face will be at the helm in Riviera Beach this fall.
Suncoast hired Jimmy Clark as the Chargers’ new head football coach, bringing Clark back for his second stint as the team’s head coach, as first reported by WMEN. Clark previously coached Suncoast from 2012-15.
“I’m thrilled and humbled, obviously,” Clark said. “I’m very, very humbled in that Suncoast would want me back and took me back, and that was not an auto- matic thing. That was very humbling, and it feels great.”
Clark, who stepped down after the 2015 season to help with his family’s business, has remained at Suncoast as social studies teacher. He said the time was right to get back into coaching.
“My Suncoast family wanted me back, and my family supports me in going back, so it was a perfect situation,” Clark said. “Also … it’s impossible not to miss it. Football coaches are kind of cut from the same cloth; we just, of course, are going to miss it. We want to be with our boys on Friday night, going out there and playing games, trying to build a program. I’m like giddy already.”
Clark went 11-30 in his first stint with Suncoast, a school with tough academic standards. Five of those 11 wins came in Clark’s final season, which ended with a district title and playoff appearance.
Clark’s successor, Bobby May, won a second straight district title in 2016 before stepping down after the 2017 season. The Chargers went 3-7 last year under first-year coach Brian Pulaski.
“I feel like I know what it takes to win at Suncoast,” Clark said. “You have to have a unique plan that you have to be willing to do, which is very difficult. You have to be willing to start practice times at very, very inordinate times, you have to be able to work with teachers and kids to make sure your best players can stay at Suncoast.”
Clark points to former Chargers stars like 2013 defensive lineman Ke’Tyrus Marks, 2016 quarterback Matt Dame (Columbia), 2017 linebacker K’Jakyre Daley (Oklahoma) and 2019 defensive lineman Mitzseen Joseph (Pennsylvania) as players who’ve led winning Suncoast teams while graduating and going on to compete in college football.
“If you’re in middle school, and you’re a good football player and you have good grades,” Clark said, “there’s only one place you should be playing football, and that’s at Suncoast.”